Hi, with help of the wiki and experimenting i figured out bits of the civilian attribute mess.
As everyone probably noted, vanilla DF 31.08 will invariably turn your dwarves into obese, slow, weak, clumsy, socially inept, uncreative idiots with passing time, no matter what or how much they work.
To fix the decay the following needs to be added to .df_folder/raw/objects/creature_standard.txt below dwarf but before the next creature starts:
Phys/Ment rate default: 500
[PHYS_ATT_RATES:STRENGTH:50:NONE:NONE:NONE]
[PHYS_ATT_RATES:AGILITY:50:NONE:NONE:NONE]
[PHYS_ATT_RATES:TOUGHNESS:50:NONE:NONE:NONE]
[PHYS_ATT_RATES:ENDURANCE:50:NONE:NONE:NONE]
[PHYS_ATT_RATES:DISEASE_RESISTANCE:50:NONE:NONE:NONE]
[PHYS_ATT_RATES:RECUPERATION:50:NONE:NONE:NONE]
[MENT_ATT_RATES:ANALYTICAL_ABILITY:50:NONE:NONE:NONE]
[MENT_ATT_RATES:CREATIVITY:50:NONE:NONE:NONE]
[MENT_ATT_RATES:EMPATHY:50:NONE:NONE:NONE]
[MENT_ATT_RATES:FOCUS:50:NONE:NONE:NONE]
[MENT_ATT_RATES:INTUITION:50:NONE:NONE:NONE]
[MENT_ATT_RATES:KINESTHETIC_SENSE:50:NONE:NONE:NONE]
[MENT_ATT_RATES:LINGUISTIC_ABILITY:50:NONE:NONE:NONE]
[MENT_ATT_RATES:MUSICALITY:50:NONE:NONE:NONE]
[MENT_ATT_RATES:PATIENCE:50:NONE:NONE:NONE]
[MENT_ATT_RATES:SOCIAL_AWARENESS:50:NONE:NONE:NONE]
[MENT_ATT_RATES:MEMORY:50:NONE:NONE:NONE]
[MENT_ATT_RATES:SPATIAL_SENSE:50:NONE:NONE:NONE]
[MENT_ATT_RATES:WILLPOWER:50:NONE:NONE:NONE]
This can be done for running fortresses/existing worlds too, by editing it into
df_folder/data/save/region/raw/objects/creature_standard.txt
If you wish to turn of skill decay too, add this:
Skill rate default: 100
[SKILL_RATES:100:NONE:NONE:NONE]
Note that the number right after Attribute Rates is only 1/10th of the default; this is the cost to improve the attribute.
I found 500 to be exceedingly slow, possibly so slow that it's the cause of the rapid attribute decay we see in vanilla df at the moment. 50 will have your miners gain attribute increases at a speed that is (to my feeling) a bit slower than the old 40d dwarves.
So far i've had dwarves notably gain attributes by mining (strength, endurance, agility) and pumping (endurance). But none at all through other actions i've tried in the short term (but at lower improvement costs, the rate can even be set to negative!)
Enjoy.
If anyone can monitor a few of his dwarves for a longer term and see if there's a gain to toughness etc too, please do and share
Sources:
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Cheating#Tinkering_with_the_Dwarven_Soulhttp://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=803
